Lando Norris finished P5 at the F1 2026 Japanese GP. While his teammate Oscar Piastri delivered the first podium for McLaren so far this season, the Brit struggled a bit more fighting through a tight pack towards the end of top 6.
By the end, McLaren drivers saw few changes to their starting positions. Piastri climbed one step, going from P3 to P2, and Norris remained in P5. Initially, they both managed a great start, as Antonelli fell behind, Piastri took the lead, and Norris got to P3 behind Leclerc.
Yet, Russell overtook the Brit world champion by the third lap, followed by the other Mercedes a few tours later.
After he dropped to P6 under the safety car, the defending World Champion eventually got Lewis Hamilton with a couple of laps left to grab a top 5.
“I was just more in the mess”, says Norris on his performance against Piastri
After the race, last year’s World Champion reflected on how his race was different to his teammate’s in the print media pen. Bottled up in traffic all day, he could not show his full potential.
“I think it was a good race from my side,” he summed up.
“Of course, it looks like it maybe could have been better with Oscar finishing second and that’s a very good thing for the team.
“I think I was just more in the mess, you know, with Oscar in clean air. The clean air around here was crazy strong.
“Even when I overtook Lewis at the end, I expected to not really go much quicker and I went like five, six turns quicker quite easily. So, it’s crazy how much that helps.”
Norris regretted Oscar Piastri’s bad luck with the safety car, which potentially could have cost the Australian driver a victory in the F1 2026 Japanese GP.
“He enjoyed a very good race and probably deserved to win the race, honestly, if it wasn’t for the safety car. So, unfortunate from that side. That would have been good to see.”
Nonetheless, he applauded McLaren’s results: “But it was just a good day from a points point of view and the pace was clearly strong enough to hold on to these positions, which is a good sign.”
The Japanese GP brought a breath of fresh air for McLaren after a difficult start in 2026
Overall, it was a good result for the team after a disastrous start to the season. While Piastri didn’t start in Australia, neither of the McLaren drivers started in China a week later. Suzuka brought some peace to the team with both cars scoring good points and leaving P5 and P6 in the drivers’ championship.
Lando Norris hopes this weekend signifies McLaren is going in a upward direction.
“The first few weekends have not been so good and this weekend was much better for us.
“So, going in the right direction, although we didn’t change too many things and we have some good things coming, I hope.
“It’s already a positive that we could have such a strong race like we had here today. So, positives, obviously some things we know we need to work on, but otherwise a good day for McLaren.”
